G4S head Nick Buckles flies out to convince investors of ISS deal

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THE CHIEF executive of embattled security giant G4S met key investors in Copenhagen yesterday to try to persuade them to back his controversial £5.2bn takeover of rival ISS.

Nick Buckles made the swift visit to Denmark after the hostile reaction that greeted the deal last week. G4S has a series of Scandinavian shareholders remaining from the merger of Securicor and the security business of Denmark’s Group 4 Falck in February 2007.

London hedge fund Parvus, the fifth-largest shareholder in G4S, has said the deal “does not make sense strategically, operationally or financially” and proxy group Institutional Shareholder Services came out against it at the weekend.

Yesterday G4S shares were almost flat, closing up 0.84 per cent at 244.34p. The shares are down by around 13 per cent on the level before the takeover was announced.

If the takeover goes ahead it will involve a £2bn rights issue and G4S assuming ISS’ debt of £3.67bn.